Phoenix City Council: Reverse Citizens United!

We know that the Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC accounted for 78% of the campaign spending in the 2012 election. This money comes from unnamed, anonymous donors. This means that we could be selling our sovereignty, having foreign organizations incorporate and influence our elections without our ever knowing. Furthermore, anonymous communication hides biases in the information. This type of obfuscation can cause serious and irreparable harm to our system of representative democracy. As Ben Franklin said “It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” It is incumbent upon you, as civil servants, to stem this tide of tyranny and stand up for open and honest communication among the electorate.

For these reasons I request that you endorse the following:

Be it resolved That the City Council of Phoenix, AZ calls upon the United States Congress to pass and send to the state for ratification a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission; and to clarify that: Corporations are not entitled to the Constitutional protections or "rights" of natural persons: and Money is not speech, and therefore regulating election-related spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech. and Resolved that we instruct the representatives of the City of Phoenix to make the need and support for a constitutional amendment known to our state's Congressional delegation, and to the Congress at large and to ask for their position on such an amendment

Letter to

Committee ChairMichael Nowakowski

Daniel Valenzuela

Thelda Williams

and 1 other

Michael Johnson

Democracy is not for sale.

Corporations aren't people; money isn't speech.

We know that the Supreme Court ruling "Citizens United v. FEC" accounted for 78% of the campaign spending in the 2012 election. This money comes from unnamed, anonymous donors. This means that we could be selling our sovereignty, having foreign organizations influence our elections without our ever knowing. Furthermore, anonymous communication hides biases in the information. This type of obfuscation can cause serious and irreparable harm to our system of representative democracy. As Ben Franklin said “It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” It is incumbent upon you, as civil servants, to stem this tide of tyranny and stand up for open and honest communication among the electorate.

For these reasons I request that you endorse the following:

Be it resolved That the City Council of Phoenix, AZ calls upon the United States Congress to pass and send to the state for ratification a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission; and to clarify that: Corporations are not entitled to the Constitutional protections or "rights" of natural persons; and Money is not speech, and therefore regulating election-related spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech. and Be it resolved that we instruct the representatives of the City of Phoenix to make the need and support for a constitutional amendment known to our state's Congressional delegation, and to the Congress at large and to ask for their position on such an amendment.